The Golden Knights have been winning since they were born. They're back in another conference final

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — If a gambler at Las Vegas' high-stakes tables got on a winning run as long and as impressive as the Golden Knights' first nine seasons in the NHL, the casino would probably encourage them to leave.

The rest of the NHL can't get rid of the Knights that easily, and their ridiculous roll has extended all the way into yet another Western Conference finals.

The Knights won their 14th playoff series when they finished off the upstart Anaheim Ducks with a 5-1 victory in Game 6 of the second round Thursday night. No team has won more postseason series since Vegas entered the league in 2017, and the Knights are in the third round of the playoffs for a jaw-dropping fifth time in nine seasons.

This charmed club is halfway to its second Stanley Cup title, but it isn't just luck driving Sin City's team deep into seemingly every postseason while the rest of the West looks on in frustration and envy.

Vegas' win-at-all-costs philosophy has required years of expensive signings and high-profile talent acquisitions. It led to a shocking coaching change this spring. It has also depended on that talent's ability to coalesce when games mean the most — a feat that even great teams sometimes can't pull off.

So far, the Knights' pot hasn't gone empty — and their luck is holding strong.

“Just proud of the guys,” said defenseman Shea Theodore, an original member of the Knights. “I think it comes right from (owner) Bill Foley up top. That's the message going into every year, is to win Cups, and I think we've put ourselves in great positions. Guys put the work in.”

With a pair of six-game series victories over the Utah Mammoth and the Ducks, Vegas has improved to 15-4-1 since the franchise pulled the stunning move of firing Bruce Cassidy, its Stanley Cup-winning coach, and hiring John Tortorella with just eight games left in the regular season.

“Torts has been a good change coming in, just getting us the right mindset going into each game, each playoff series," Theodore said. "I feel like we have the right tools going in and guys have been executing.”

The Knights had been in an 8-15-4 slump before they took the extraordinary step of turning over the team to a 67-year-old journeyman coach in late March. Tortorella hasn't made massive changes to the Knights' structure, but his new voice must have been heard: Vegas immediately surged past Anaheim and Edmonton to win the Pacific before speeding down this division's comparatively smooth path to the conference finals.

“I think we were maybe doubting a little bit of ourselves about what we were trying to do out there, and sometimes that happens,” said Mitch Marner, who scored the opening goal in the clincher in Anaheim after getting a hat trick on the same ice in Game 3. “Torts came in and, I think, brought our swagger back to where it needed to be, and playing the way that we wanted to play. And obviously since that change, I’ve really liked our game as a team. I think we all have. We’re playing a fast-paced game. We’re doing all the little things right, and that’s what it takes.”

Marner's first season in Vegas has been “a roller coaster ride,” according to the longtime Toronto forward who left for Vegas last summer amid fan discontent with him while the Maple Leafs failed to reach a conference finals. While the Leafs imploded this season, Marner started relatively slowly out West by his lofty standards before getting on the roll of his career in the playoffs.

Marner had a goal and an assist in the Game 6 clincher, giving him an NHL-best 18 points in the postseason so far. The Toronto fans who thought he was a playoff underachiever must look for somebody else to blame, because Marner has been aces in Vegas.

“Individually wise, it feels great to be going on to the next round with this team,” Marner said. “And the work now really just keeps getting harder, and we’re excited for it.”

Indeed, the Knights flew out of Southern California knowing that their path to the Stanley Cup Final is blocked by the Colorado Avalanche, who have been the NHL's best team for most of the season.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar have led their group to eight wins in nine playoff games against the No. 2 and No. 3 teams in the conference standings. Vegas is facing long odds as it attempts to separate the Avs from their apparent destiny.

But the players who wear the Golden Knights sweater have been on a collective lucky streak since they entered the NHL, and that success breeds a confidence that money can't buy.

“We're playing a very high-talented team coming up here, so we've got to make sure we're doing all those things right,” Marner said. “And then when we get our opportunities, capitalize on them.”

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Mitch Marner, second from right, celebrates after scoring on Anaheim Ducks goaltender Lukas Dostal, left, during the first period in Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Pavel Dorofeyev, left, celebrates his goal with goaltender Carter Hart during the third period in Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series against the Anaheim Ducks, Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart, top, is congratulated by teammates after the Golden Knights defeated the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Carter Hart, left, and center Brett Howden congratulate each other after the Golden Knights defeated the Anaheim Ducks in Game 6 of a second-round NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Thursday, May 14, 2026, in Anaheim, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least six people and damaged Kyiv’s Northern Bridge, suspending traffic and causing tailbacks for a third day in Moscow's latest effort to disrupt life in the Ukrainian capital.

The strike came after two days of Russian assaults forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv’s six road bridges over the Dnipro River. Previously, Russia has hit apartment blocks, supermarket warehouses, gas stations and data centers, among other targets.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday it would continue to carry out “mass retaliatory strikes" on Kyiv and other Ukrainian ​cities, urging foreign nationals and diplomats to leave ‌the country. It previously issued a similar warning in May.

Russia invaded its neighbor more than 4 ½ years ago, and there are no concrete signs that a peace settlement might be possible. Fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line snaking through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been virtually deadlocked in recent months.

Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said the strike on the bridge damaged the road surface and trolleybus cables, forcing traffic to be suspended. He later said two people were wounded in the attack, one of whom was briefly hospitalized.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday confirmed it was behind the latest attack, claiming the bridge is used to “facilitate troop movements and the logistics of military cargo deliveries” for Ukraine’s armed forces.

Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the moment of impact as vehicles crossed the bridge, including footage purportedly recorded by a driver's dashcam.

The aerial war has intensified, with Kyiv striking Russia's oil industry and businesses while Moscow has menaced Ukrainian cities with hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Saturday that the war is “dangerously reaching” her country, following a spate of airspace incursions.

“I condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine this morning. Its war is dangerously reaching Moldova,” she said in a post on X, adding that five “Russian air attack weapons, including Banderol missiles and drones, violated our airspace and exploded on our soil.”

“Moscow is putting lives at risk across Europe and must be stopped,” she added.

Ukraine's air force said that Moscow overnight launched Banderol cruise missiles — low-cost, jet-powered loitering munitions that Russia uses to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses — at the Odesa region, which shares a long land border with Moldova. A loitering munition is designed to hover over an area, searching for targets, and detonate while crashing into them.

Russia attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and nearby areas with drones and guided bombs on Friday and overnight, killing five people and wounding over 40, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov.

In nearby Izyum, Russian drone strikes wounded three people, according to the local military administration. It said a drone slammed into an industrial warehouse, while another damaged homes.

In Ukraine’s Odesa region, home to multiple Black Sea ports, a sailor was killed and three others wounded after Russian forces struck a civilian cargo ship on Saturday, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority reported. It said the ship was flying the Liberian flag.

In eastern Ukraine, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, Ukrainian drones killed two people and wounded two others, according to Kremlin-installed regional head Leonid Pasechkin. Pasechkin said the drones attacked a truck and passenger car driving along a highway, adding all victims were civilians.

In Russia, Ukrainian drone strikes killed a civilian and wounded two more in the Belgorod region, in villages just kilometers (miles) from the Ukrainian border, local authorities said Saturday.

Associated Press writer Stephen McGrath in Coventry, England, contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Rescue workers clear the rubble of a residential house destroyed in a Russian air strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

A rescue worker extinguishes a fire at a residential house destroyed by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026.(AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

People clear rubble from a residential house damaged by a Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)

A man cries next to the body of his grandmother killed in a Russian airstrike on a residential neighborhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)